CHAPTER 128: THE FRAME THAT NEVER WAS

Seeing Aurelus kiss Marissa was like watching the world tilt sideways. Both Robert and Auren felt their stomachs twist with disgust, their chests heavy with betrayal.

But for Robert, it was worse. His heart didn’t just crack—it split open, all the grief he had bottled up bursting free like a flood.

"Marissa!... How could you do this to us!? To me!" Robert’s voice broke as he staggered to his feet, his wounds still bleeding, his body trembling.

The cuts across his flesh screamed with pain, but compared to the wound inside his chest, they felt like nothing. His heart throbbed louder than the blood dripping down his arms.

Auren stood frozen, his expression draining of fire. The sight carved into him too, dredging up memories he had buried deep.

He remembered his mother, the woman who once held him, who remarried a man that despised him after leaving his father.

The same coldness that had hollowed him as a boy now returned, sharper than before.

"I see..." His voice was low, almost a whisper. His head tilted down, shadows covering his eyes. "Now it makes sense."

Auren’s aura, once blazing like a torch, shifted. The heat snuffed out, replaced by a killing chill. It was no longer the presence of a fiery fighter—it was the suffocating dread of a predator.

All those times... it turns out it was just a lie?

The weight hit him like chains, paralyzing his body. His fists trembled but refused to rise. Betrayal—raw, suffocating betrayal—pressed down harder than any spell.

Robert’s eyes brimmed with tears that blurred his vision.

"Marissa! Is this really true? All this time you’ve been using us!?"

"Ha!" Aurelus’s voice cut sharp, mocking. He smirked cruelly as he pulled Marissa tighter by the waist, his golden eyes glowing with perverse satisfaction.

"Well, what do you know? Did you like my surprise?"

His gaze slid to Robert, savoring the man’s anguish.

"As you can see, Marissa was a spy. We sent her into the Runewood. She was supposed to scout, but fate smiled on us—she became the first human to enter Runewood and return alive."

Aurelus turned, locking eyes with Auren.

"And judging by your reaction, she even managed to befriend you. Too bad. The Marissa you knew was a lie from the very beginning."

Then, like a lunatic, he leaned down, pressing his nose into her long black hair and inhaled deeply. His grin widened with mania.

"In fact," he continued, almost laughing, "this woman is one of the core members of the Dark Fate. To hide her identity, we sealed her memories. She truly believed she was innocent. That’s how perfect her disguise was."

Marissa stepped forward then, her steps steady and cold. She raised her staff, pointing it at Robert. Mana churned, swirling into her palm until it shimmered dangerously.

"You were a fool to believe my lie."

Her voice carried no warmth, no hesitation. The glow in her hand intensified, the spell hissing like a brewing storm.

"And as a reward for being a useful tool during my stay in Runewood... here’s a taste of my true power."

[THORN OF PIERCING EARTH]

The ground split with a crack, and from it rose a monstrous earthen spike, jagged and lethal, aimed straight at Robert’s heart.

Austaire and Mardonio lurched forward, but horror struck them—their legs wouldn’t budge. Earthen shackles had bound them, just as Auren had been rooted moments earlier.

"This is bad! Move, Robert!" Mardonio shouted desperately.

Robert twisted his body at the last second. The thorn, meant to impale his chest, tore through his arm instead. His right arm severed clean, blood spraying as shards of stone scraped across his ribs.

"Aghk!"

The cry ripped out of him, raw and guttural, as pain lanced through every nerve. His vision blurred, dark edges creeping in, while hot blood seeped fast into the soil, staining it crimson.

"Hahahaha!"

Aurelus threw his head back in wild laughter, savoring the sight. Pride lit his cruel face as he admired Marissa’s merciless precision.

"Finish him," Aurelus growled, his voice low, cold, and heavy with command.

"I will."

Marissa’s gaze shifted, all life drained from her eyes.

Whatever warmth had once existed there was long gone, leaving only the empty stare of a corpse animating the shell of a beautiful woman. Dark mana swirled around her hands, another deadly spell coalescing—

Click.

Auren slammed a new magazine into his MK Uzis. His arms steadied despite the blood loss, his teeth grinding against the pain.

BANG! BABABABANG!

The guns roared like thunder, spitting fire and steel.

"Agh!"

Marissa jerked violently as bullets tore into her shoulder and hip, the magic unraveling before she could cast. Her body staggered, her beauty marred by the sudden brutal wounds.

"Leave her to me!" Aurelus barked.

His eyes ignited with flame, Phoenix blood igniting in his veins. The surge of power thickened his aura, boosting his speed, strength, and the unnatural regeneration of his wounds.

His wings snapped open, molten feathers scattering sparks as he charged. In a flash, he drew his twin blades, deflecting the incoming storm of bullets.

Sparks burst with each strike, steel ringing against lead in a clash of impossible reflexes.

Auren’s jaw clenched.

’Damn it. The bastard was too fast.’

All at once, the patience of the Dark Fate shattered.

Shadows moved. Figures dropped from the heights of the battlefield, their weapons gleaming wickedly under the chaos of flame and gunfire.

The air trembled with their bloodlust.

"Destroy that bastard!"

"How dare he lay a hand on our future empress!"

"Kill him!"

"Graaaah!"

Their voices melded into a deafening chorus of fury.

The battlefield shook as the Dark Fate surged forward, Aurelus leading them like a war bull, his blade raised high, gleaming with the promise of death.

Auren’s legs remained shackled, locked tight by earth magic. His heart pounded as he calculated. Aurelus, slowed slightly by his wounds, was still leagues faster than the others. Three seconds. That’s all Auren had.

"This is bad... I need to escape!"

Desperation sparked. His eyes widened, an idea flashing.

This might hurt, but it’s my only choice.

He slung his Uzis aside and shouldered the bazooka, angling it straight at the ground beneath him.

Let’s go, rocket man!

He braced, grit his teeth, and pulled the trigger.

ZZZT-KABOOOOM!

"AAAAGH!"

The explosion blasted him skyward, flames and rubble engulfing the earth below. The Dark Fate stumbled back under the storm of flying debris.

Aurelus’s blade, meant for Auren, instead cut one of his own allies clean in two.

Auren soared, but panic followed. His MJ boots sputtered, their runes sparking violently before snapping. The shockwave had fried them.

"Crap! Not again!"

The enchanted boots had saved his legs from being torn apart, but the price was their own destruction.

Auren spun wildly through the air, flailing, his body thrown into an uncontrolled tumble above the battlefield’s chaos.

It’s fine. Just land. If I can land, I’ll be safe.

TAG.

A sudden crushing grip clamped around his ankle like an iron shackle.

"I finally got you, roach."

Auren’s blood turned to ice. He craned his neck down—and there he was. Aurelus, wings spread wide like a fiery predator in the sky, smirking with cruel delight.

One hand gripped Auren’s leg like a vice. In the other, his sword gleamed hungrily in the firelight.

’No.’

Auren twisted desperately, bringing his Bazooka around. He aimed point-blank—

Clink.

Empty.

"Fuck!"

The chamber was dry.

No bullets. No salvation. In a last-ditch move, he wrenched it forward and crossed it against Aurelus’s incoming blade.

CRANG!

The clash rang like thunder. When a heavy sword meets a bazooka, Auren ultimately lost.

Ugghk!~

The force rattled his bones, arms trembling as metal ground against metal. But Aurelus was stronger—so much stronger. His weight and power crashed down like a mountain, sending Auren hurtling back toward the ground.

CRASH!

The impact tore through him, knocking air from his lungs. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he coughed violently, his body wracked with pain.

The world tilted and spun, vision blurring as he fought to stay conscious.

Then the sky darkened.

A shadow blotted out the light—Aurelus, descending like a flaming meteor.

KRUGUNG!

"AGHH!"

Both of Aurelus’s boots slammed into Auren’s arms with brutal force, pinning them flat to the ground.

The bones screamed under the pressure, a white-hot pain that locked him in place. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t fight back.

Aurelus loomed over him, grinning with all the cruelty of a predator savoring the kill.

Without hesitation, he thrust his greatsword down.

SLICK—

The blade drove deep into Auren’s chest, piercing flesh and bone with sickening ease. His eyes shot wide, mouth gaping soundlessly in horror.

’What... what just happened...’

Blood poured freely around the steel, warm and sticky, soaking into his torn clothes. His heart staggered, each beat weaker than the last. His vision swam in red and black.

"Hahaha!"

Together with the Dark Fate members, Aurelus’s laughter shook the air, raw with triumph.

His teeth gleamed in the firelight as he gloated,

"Finally, end of that annoying knight!"

But then, his laughter broke.

Auren’s body flickered.

"What?"

Confusion stabbed through Aurelus’s victory.

He froze, eyes narrowing.

"What’s happening?"

The Trinity Bracer strapped to Auren’s wrist glowed faintly, then dimmed. Sparks crawled across its surface, hissing like dying embers.

With a sputtering sigh, the device deactivated.

And in the very next heartbeat—Auren’s disguise shattered.

The burly knight form dissolved, fading like smoke.

What remained was a lean young man with deep crimson hair, his body clad in dark green leather armor.

More shocking than his real face was what appeared—or rather, what didn’t.

Above his name, no Divine Frame glowed.

Nothing.

And for the confused Aurelus,

’No... could it be?’